electronic guitar

Seth Josel - originally from New York, now residing in Berlin - has become one of the leading instrumental pioneers of his generation. As a soloist he has concertized in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, the US and Canada. He has performed as a guest with leading orchestras and ensembles of Europe, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra (London), the RSB Berlin, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the South German Radio Choir, the Staatskappelle Berlin and the Schönberg Ensemble of Amsterdam, and has appeared at several major European festivals including the Salzburg Festspiele, Ars Musica, Donaueschingen, The Holland Festival, Munich Biennale and London's South Bank Festival. From 1991 till 2000 he was a permanent member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik NRW, a State-subsidized ensemble devoted to the performance of contemporary music. In recent seasons he has been guesting regularly with KNM Berlin, Ensemble SurPlus of Freiburg as well as with the Basel Sinfonietta.

As ensemble player and soloist Seth Josel has been involved in the first performances of more than one hundred works. He has collaborated and consulted closely with such composers as Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Mauricio Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail and James Tenney. In addition, he has been highly committed to working with several of the leading young composers of our time, including Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Sidney Corbett, Chaya Czernowin, Keeril Makan and Manfred Stahnke, all of whom have written works featuring his talents.

He has recorded for radio stations throughout Europe, and he appears as ensemble/chamber music performer on CDs released by Nonesuch, Mode Records, CPO, Col Legno, Cybele Records, HetHut, New World Records, Touch Records and Winter & Winter. In 1995 he released his first solo CD on CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.) featuring works of contemporary American composers. His second solo CD appeared on O.O. Discs, Inc. and his third on New World Records, all featuring works of American composers. With Ulrich Krieger he collaborated on a portrait CD for Mode Records, presenting rarely heard works by Gavin Bryars. He recorded Berio's "Sequenza XI" for the complete Sequenza-Cycle which was released on Mode, and the eagerly awaited magnum opus "33-127" by Peter Ablinger was released by Mode in February 2009.

With colleagues Wiek Hijmans, Patricio Wang and Mark Haanstra from Amsterdam, he is co-founder of the quartet, Catch, which, in 2007, gave a week-long workshop at Princeton University in addition to appearing as part of the "concertino" in the U.S.-premiere of Steve Mackey's "Dreamhouse" with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Catch had a featured slot in September '07 at the second "Output" festival in Amsterdam, collaborated extensively in the Autumn '07 with the Slagwerkgroep Den Haag and performed concerts in Los Angeles, Berkeley and Grinnell during the spring of '08.

In recent year Seth Josel has been a welcome guest on University and College campuses for his stimulating and diverse presentations regarding New Art Music. Among them are Yale, Northwestern, MSM, CalArts, Musik Akademie Basel, UdK Berlin, and the Sweelinck Konservatorium.

In addition to having published articles which concern issues related to New Art Music, Seth Josel is co-founder of "www.sheerpluck.de", a website dedicated to contemporary guitar music which has been online since the summer of 2003.

After acquiring his Bachelor of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music Seth Josel enrolled at Yale University and earned the Master of Music degree; he then went on to become the first guitarist at Yale to earn the Master of Musical Arts and the Doctor of Musical Art degrees. His teachers included Manuel Barrueco, Eliot Fisk and harpsichordist Richard Rephann; as well, he has participated in the master classes of Oscar Ghiglia and Andrés Segovia. He is recipient of numerous awards and prizes including a Fulbright-Hays grant from the United States government and an Artists Stipend from the Akademie Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart.

Performances

Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | January 27, 2012

News and Press

[Concert Review] Mandolin Power! And other Unexpected Delights

On Friday, January 27, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (a.k.a. BMOP) presented Strange Bedfellows: Unexpected Concertos, showcasing instruments don't get to be concerto soloists as often as their ubiquitous cousins, like violin or piano. Here, the spotlight was on viola, electric guitar, mandolin, theremin and French horn. All but one of the pieces were written in the last six years, and together they showed that contemporary classical music is thriving — don't let anyone tell you different!

Miss Music Nerd Full review
[Concert Review] BMOP five concertos cover some brave, new frontiers

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project called its program of five "unexpected concertos" at Jordan Hall Friday "Strange Bedfellows." None (well, almost none) of the music induced slumber, however. Created for an odd array of solo instruments (viola, electric guitar, theremin, mandolin, French horn) accompanied by instrumental ensembles of various size and composition, the works prodded at the frontiers of traditional concerto form. Electronic and acoustic sounds engaged in conversation - sometimes in rancorous argument - across the centuries, forcing us to rethink this venerable genre.

The Boston Globe Full review
[Concert Review] BMOP Revitalizes the Concept of a Concerto Concert

Leave it to the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) to completely revitalize the concept of a concerto concert. This past Friday night at Jordan Hall, the orchestra, conducted by music director Gil Rose, presented a thoroughly energizing and invigorating concert of five concerti written by composers born between 1923 and 1979.

Billed as Strange Bedfellows: Unexpected Concertos, the program featured concertos for, respectively, viola, electric guitar, mandolin, theremin, and horn.

The Arts Fuse Full review
[Concert Review] Oooh-weee-oooh: BMOP unveils a concerto for theremin, among works for other offbeat instruments

If you're one of those concertgoers who look forward most to the concerto, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, led by its artistic director Gil Rose, had a concert for you Friday night at Jordan Hall.

Boston Classical Review Full review
[Press Release] BMOP Unites Five Varying Composers and Concertos for One Night

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, presents "Strange Bedfellows: Unexpected Concertos" – a program of five incongruous concertos by five different composers featuring five of today's most revered solo artists. Spearheading the evening is the world premiere of Eric Chasalow's Horn Concerto with horn soloist Bruno Schneider.

Full review